


Dead On Arrival

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Series: Dead [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst and Humor, Artistic Liberties, Don't Have to Know Canon, Elemental Magic, Explicit Language, Familiars, Fate & Destiny, First Spinjitsu Master is a Jerk, Gen, Horny Teenagers, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Lloyd Garmadon Has Dyed Hair, Lloyd Garmadon Has Issues, Lloyd Garmadon Has Piercings, Lloyd Garmadon Needs a Hug, Lloyd Garmadon Swearing, Lord Garmadon is Trying, Mild Sexual Content, No Romance, Non-Linear Narrative, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Not Happy, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other: See Story Notes, POV Alternating, POV First Person, Prophecy, Running Away, Screw Destiny, Swearing, Teenagers, Unreliable Narrator, Wet Dream, magic tattoos, narrated in the form of a recording transcription, only like twice though and only in dreams, overlord is a jerk, when i say "swearing" i mean A LOT OF IT
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:40:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27433678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: Lloyd Garmadon disappeared without a trace six years ago - in his absence, a darkness has begun to rise in Ninjago City.Destiny says only Lloyd, and the friends he left behind, can stop it.With Lloyd missing and presumed dead, and none of his one-time friends quite sure of what to do, the city (and the world)... Might... Be kind of screwed?
Relationships: Cole & Kai & Jay Walker & Zane, Cole & Lloyd Garmadon, Cole & Lloyd Garmadon & Kai & Jay Walker & Zane, Kai & Nya (Ninjago), Lloyd Garmadon & Zane
Series: Dead [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2004259
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. L Tape 1: History Lesson (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Real quick!! This is an idea I had back in my first run in college (so, like, 2017, when I was freshly 17). I haven't really been super into the show for a while for a lot of reasons, but I still love the boys (and especially my boy, Lloyd, who deserved better) and I literally had this whole series (because there's more) ready to be written. Since it was 2017 and I was very busy, however, I didn't have full outlines written for any of them and barely even had a first draft of this one's first chapter. I did have all the vague summaries though!
> 
> Basically, I decided to give writing it another shot, lol. Especially since it's 2020 and my writing has improved EXPONENTIALLY since 2017.
> 
> It is not canon compliant AT ALL, pretty much, for the movie or the show. So, like, don't go into this expecting the characters to be in-character for their canon selves. And don't go into it expecting the world to be the same, or the stories. I took a lot of creative liberties and happily butchered whatever it was the writers on Ninjago were going for to suit my needs lol

[Tape begins.]

[Shuffling. Someone coughs, then clears their throat. Silence. A deep breath.]

Okay.

May as well get this over with ― it was fun to fuck around at first, but to be honest it's starting to get kind of stale. And since they won't let me leave until I tell them something substantial, and I'd really like to get the fuck out of here, I guess I'll give it an honest go this time.

Y'know.

Get my ass the hell outa here.

[Shuffling resumes. Shuffling stops.]

Once, many, _many_ years ago, there was nothing.

Nothing except two creatures floating in the endless void.

These were the Mas―

[Unknown Speaker: "Dude, what the hell? We didn't ask you for a history lesson."

Narrator/Speaker 1: "You didn't _ask_ me for anything, _thanks._ You're forcing me to do this, remember? I don't get a choice unless I decide I want to fight about it."

Silence.

Narrator/Speaker 1: "Also? You wanted my story, and my story makes literally _zero_ sense without background information, so zip it and let me fucking talk."

Unknown Speaker/Speaker 2: "Hmph."

Silence resumes.

Narrator/Speaker 1: "Great, thanks. Now where the fuck was I?"]

Oh, yeah, right. Right.

Blah, blah, two creatures floating in the void, blah.

These were the Master and the Overlord.

Legend says that they started as friends ― brothers, even. But the Overlord, the weaker of the two, was power-hungry. The Master, however, was peaceful.

That’s what the legends say, at least.

And despite the envy the Overlord felt toward the Master, and the many other differences between them, the two managed to live in harmony for a time, in that time before time. Before the Master, feeling stagnant, created Time.

But, eventually, the Master created Time.

Then, the Master, choked for eternities by the Nothingness in which he lived, created Light.

The Overlord, in turn, created Space, and the Darkness.

No longer choked by the Nothingness, but now bored by it and the unyielding passage of the meaningless time he had created, the Master created our World.

Not the world quite as we know it, but our World nonetheless.

He created an endless expanse of Earth and Sea, Clouds and Sky. Gouged deep ravines into the Earth with a wave of his hand, pulled up great mountains with a delicate pluck of his fingers. Sprinkled down his power to create plants, forming vast fields of food and ever more vast forests ― forests so large one could never hope to cross them in less than a week. Sighed and created deep oceans. Scorching deserts, frozen wastes. Places both habitable and not.

And as he created, the Overlord watched.

The Overlord watched, hoping he may be given something of consequence ― a forest to himself, an island all his own.

The Master, too enthralled by his own creation, gave him neither.

Nor did he give him anything else.

And the Overlord grew angry, but the Overlord was patient. Time was still new, and the Overlord knew that when enough had passed the Master would snap from his stupor. Or so he hoped. And hoped.

The legends say he waited nearly a thousand years.

And in that time, the Master created Us.

Humans.

And he created Us in his own image, unlike the many other lives he had created before Us.

He created for himself a wife with whom to settle down on this world he had created. A wife with whom to bear children, as the rest of Us did.

And he remained too enthralled to pay any mind to the patient, but envious, Overlord.

Furious at a thousand years of silence and being ignored, the Overlord attacked this precious world that the Master had created, and the creations he had placed in it ― the Overlord attacked Us.

The Master was furious in kind.

The battle raged for a hundred years.

The devastation it wrought was immense.

And, finally, the Master triumphed over the Overlord, trapping him in a shrine. He pounded mighty fists onto the ground and let the shrine, and the forest surrounding it, fall into the ocean, where he had hoped it may sink, never to be found again.

But the Overlord’s presence, the Overlord’s _anger,_ kept it floating.

Still, it floated away into the endless oceans outside of the main landmass, and the Master was happy enough with that, as it would still never be recovered.

I don’t think I need to tell you that he’s an idiot.

Settling down for good, the Master and his wife bore two children ― Garmadon, the elder, and Wu, the younger. They loved each other dearly, the brothers, but as with any set of siblings there was a rivalry.

This only grew more heated after Garmadon found himself bitten by a creature not of the Master nor the Overlord’s creation, called the Devourer, and infected by its venom.

The venom twisted and corrupted Garmadon, who was only a child, and he grew, with time, into a hateful man who held a soul without a glimmer of light… As was the curse of the Devourer’s venom.

Still, with time, Garmadon and Wu both fell in love with one of Us, a woman named Misako.

Though they fought for her favor, it was Garmadon who eventually caught her.

They married, producing a child.

A single son, who they named Lloyd.

Before his birth, _long_ before, the Master had a vision of the future ― the Overlord’s return, Garmadon’s evil growing beyond any ability to control it. Both events able to be stopped by only _one_ person… The person who would inherit the Master’s powers. His true heir.

When his grandson, Lloyd, was finally born, he chose his heir.

Even if “choose” implies he had any other choice.

And he passed his power to the infant, with the promise that one day he would learn to control it and one day he would save the world.

[Silence. Deep breath.]

‘Sup.

I’m Lloyd Garmadon, and I just wanna say _fuck_ my grandpa, _fuck_ the world he made, and _fuck_ his stupid fucking plan.

Oh, and fuck you guys for dragging me here against my will. For real.

Anyways, yeah, long story short, I’m the unlucky bitch he picked to save the world from the buddy he ignored like a douche and _also_ my own dad.

And, honestly? This world, much like my grandpa, fucking _blows._ I hate it here.

Even _before_ I ended up on the streets my life was kinda shit, let’s be honest here, cuz nothin’ makes a kid feel shitty like telling them every day of their miserable life that no matter what they _want_ to do with their life, one day they have to kill their dad and save the world! Like, honestly, what a crock of _shit._ I was ten. Shoulda been eating an unhealthy amount of total garbage candy and playing video games after dinner, but instead I was training to fight and having to deal with my psycho dad watching me like a hawk and barking at me about how I’d never beat him fighting like _that._

And then _after_ I ended up on the streets, well, fuck, you can imagine how _that_ went. Begging for scraps, sleeping in fucking _drainpipes_ and drafty old abandoned buildings, just trying to lay fucking low and keep out of sight. Having to deal with folks, even the shitheads who dragged me here against my will, thinking I’m some kind of stupid fucking street rat who can’t count or figure out what’s going on around me.

I’ll have you know I am fully up to date on my education, thank you.

I’ve kept up with everything through a good friend.

Ugh.

[Tape Paused.]


	2. L Tape 1: History Lesson (Part 2)

[Tape Resumes.]

Yeah, yeah, I know. Important part, I guess.

So, basically, uh…

I’m, uh, I’m sixteen, and I’ve been living on the streets for the last six years. Almost seventeen, so almost seven years.

So…

Fucking hell.

My dad is nuts, okay? I knew that from the get-go. Everyone knows. They call him  _ Lord _ Garmadon for a reason.

Like―

Like, he’s not a good dude, and he’s scary to be around, and it only gets worse when every single positive interaction you manage to have with the guy is tainted by the knowledge that he’s gonna try to kill you eventually, and you have to kill him first. The Devourer’s venom makes him a real  _ bastard _ even on his best days, even when he’s being a good dad otherwise, and… Shit, c’mon, man, I was ten and I was scared.

And scared ten year olds run away from scary situations.

[Speaker 2: “Man, I knew you probably ran away, but hearing you confirm…”

Speaker 1/Lloyd G: (Annoyed sigh) “Jesus H. Christ.  _ Zip.” _

Speaker 2: “Zipping.”]

Anyways. Yeah.

Scared ten year olds run away.

Its just that  _ most _ scared ten year olds usually run to their room, pack a toy and one pair of pants, and get about ten feet down the driveway before they get too scared to keep going and have to go back.

That’s… Not what happened with me.

Clearly.

No, I ran up to my room the night of my tenth birthday, after the party was over, and I shoved some clothes into my school backpack and I jumped my terrified little ass out the window and ran off into the night.

Cuz that night was just, like, the breaking point, you know?

I was ten, which meant that time was running out for me. And dad had been cool all day, the way he usually was on my birthdays, but he was fucking  _ struggling, _ dude. Harder than I’d ever seen him struggle before. So of course I hid out outside of the kitchen after mom sent me to bed to eavesdrop, like a child does.

Sure wish I fucking hadn’t.

Cuz what I heard was my mom trying to comfort dad through some kind of fucking  _ panic attack _ while he gasped about how I was getting too old, and time was running out, and he didn’t think he was going to be able to control himself around me much longer. How he thought I might be safer with my uncle Wu, or if he just left until it was time. How, now that I was starting to get some of my grandpa’s power for sure, it was only a matter of time.

And, you know, I don’t actually know who I was more scared for ― myself, or my dad.

Not that it matters, at this point, six years on.

Whoever I was scared for at the time, I’m not scared for them now. Cuz regardless of what  _ you idiots _ want, I’m not doing anything for you. Whatever happens to this hellhole happens. You can try to keep me here but it’s not going to do anything, because either I’ll get out or I won’t listen to you.

You know that, right?

[Speaker 2: “You can’t know that for sure. You might change your mind.”]

You know, I always liked that about you as a kid, Kai.

So optimistic, even with the whole tortured anti-hero shtick you carried around. Always wanted to think things would be alright in the end.

But they’re not fucking going to be.

[Speaker 2/Kai: “You  _ don’t know that.”] _

I can take an educated fucking guess.

Whether I help or not,  _ nothing good is coming out of this. _ My dad dies whether I’m the one who kills him or not, because if I don’t do it the Overlord will. And whether I fight the Overlord or not, it’s  _ over. _ My dad will be dead and who even knows what killing the Overlord’s going to do to  _ me. _

Somebody suffers no matter what, and in most of the futures  _ I’m _ seeing?

It’s me.

And it’s you. And every-fucking-body else.

Because there’s no good outcome.

[Speaker 2/Kai: “Lloyd...”]

No.

No, fuck this.

[Thump.]

I’m done talking.

If that’s not good enough, I don’t know what to fucking tell you.

Keep me here, let me go, I don’t care.

But I’m not talking about this anymore.

[Another thump. Shuffling. Tape ends.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo, now that the first two chapters are done I'll admit I have exactly zero idea of when the rest of it will be out! I've got the outline done but I've learned this year that that does not stop me from getting writer's block lol
> 
> Hopefully I'll get it updated fairly frequently, but with every other project on my plate I don't even know why I started this one aside from a shift in interests, tbh
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed what I've got so far! Thanks for reading ♡♡♡♡


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